


Selfless

by Break_Me_Out



Category: Prison Break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 20:52:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6535849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Break_Me_Out/pseuds/Break_Me_Out
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lincoln is living on Michael’s couch because he has a big debt to pay. Lincoln finds a way to make a lot of money to clear his debt. Michael decides to intervene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Selfless

**Author's Note:**

> First time publishing, so please enjoy and tell me what you think.

“What the hell was that!” Lincoln shouts when Michael walks out of the shower. It was the first time in a few years that Lincoln was absolutely furious with him. Not only had Michael gone behind his back and messed up his plan but Michael had also almost ruined his own life.  
“I had to do it, Linc” Michael replies just as loudly.  
“You had it all, the education, the job, the girl. Why risk it?”  
Michael pauses, then says, “you would have done the same for me.” Both brothers stand in silence. “If I hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t be here right now,” Michael calmly says.  
“If you hadn’t done that, I would be done with this trouble.”  
“It would not have ended well,” Michael states.  
“Well this doesn’t solve my problem,” says Lincoln.  
“Leading a good life would have solved your problems,” Michael spits out as he strides by Lincoln, brushing him out of the way.  
Michael still wasn’t aware of the sacrifices that Lincoln had made for him and Lincoln was too angry to tell him. Lincoln had made a promise to himself to never tell Michael anyway. Lincoln gets up and punches the wall; his fist almost creating a crater. He walks over to the kitchen, pours himself a drink and sits down. Lincoln and Michael were exhausted from the past couple of days, they had both gone through a lot.  
Four days ago, the brothers were eating breakfast together. Michael had to go to work before Lincoln, so he left the apartment first. Two minutes into his journey though, he realized that he had left a few papers back at the house. When he made it back to the door of the apartment, he heard Lincoln on the phone speaking in a tense tone. Michael paused for a second before opening the door, straining to hear the conversation. He heard bits and pieces but not enough to fully understand it.  
Once Lincoln was done talking, Michael walked in. Lincoln spun around to face Michael. At first Lincoln looked guilty as hell but he quickly subdued this look. “Who was that?” Michael slowly asked.  
“Just my boss,” Lincoln replied. Michael studied him for a moment.  
“Ok, I just came back to grab a few papers.”  
After leaving the apartment for the second time, Michael thought about the phone conversation. From what he had heard and from how Lincoln had reacted, it seemed like his brother was in trouble and that he was dealing with some shady people.  
To Michael, that was the beginning of a long process. He called his cell phone company, pretending to be Lincoln, and guessed Lincoln’s account information correctly. Lincoln had been using the same password for the past seven years. He listened to Lincoln’s past few conversations, learned about his debt, and the job he had accepted. Michael confronted Lincoln about what he had learned, and all Lincoln could say was that it had to be done. Michael knew that wasn’t true, but he couldn’t convince Lincoln. Lincoln was just too stubborn sometimes; once he had something he set his mind to, he would do it. So Michael made the decision that was obvious, the only decision that came to him naturally. He selflessly put Lincoln ahead of himself.  
Michael started planning his move. He checked out multiple blueprints, called as a potential customer, took pictures and videos, and planned his move. He was going to execute a crime that could send him to jail for many years. Michael was planning to rob a bank.  
More specifically, Michael was going to rob a bank right before Lincoln intended to rob it. If Michael did not do it, he knew Lincoln would, and he knew he couldn’t live with himself if he let Lincoln go through with it.  
The night before the robbery was a restless one for Michael. He had just finished his planning, and it was 7 pm. This left just enough time for a few hours of sleep before heading out at 11 pm. Michael lay in bed, however, he couldn’t rest the way he so desperately wanted and needed. Over the past three days, he had only gotten 13 hours of sleep and was running on fumes. His mind just wouldn’t stop going over the plan and thinking of all the things that could go wrong. He would have liked to have months of preparation for such big risk, but tonight Lincoln was making his move so Michael had to beat him to it. All he could do was hope that his preparation would get him far enough. Eventually sleep took him in.  
Michael awoke with a start. He lay still in his bed and visualized exactly what he had to do. This only took a few moments as it all flashed through his mind. He drove to the bank and parked his car a little way down the street. It was pitch black outside. Michael approached the bank from the back. He went in through the back door using a security card he had stolen the prior day when he had visited the bank and opened an account. Once inside, he knew there was only one more obstacle before the vault, the guard’s room. Michael quietly made his way over to an electrical box. He placed a small electronics jammer inside the box and turned it on. Michael was hoping that the jammer would break up the camera’s live feed and get the guards to check out what was wrong. Sure enough, a minute later, a guard walked out and headed toward the bank’s front door. As soon as Michael heard the guard leave, he made his way to the vault. He used the bank card he had acquired the preceding day along with the security card to open the vault door. It clicked open.  
Michael went inside and opened the biggest safety deposit box and started removing the cash. The two duffels he had brought were not large enough to hold all of the money, but they were enough for most of it. With the duffels in hand, he pulled on the door of the vault. It wouldn’t open. Michael panicked but spotted an electronic combination lock beside the door. This was an extra safety precaution the bank had taken that Michael had not known about. He silently scolded himself, but then turned his attention back to the task at hand. Michael knew that he did not have much time before Lincoln made his move. He estimated that he had at least a few more minutes inside the vault. As he racked his brains for any useful piece of information, he became more and more aware that his current situation was dismal. He was stuck. Michael sat down and held his head in his hands. Thankfully, one thought crept into his mind. It would allow him to escape, but without the duffel bags.  
He took the lighter out of his back pocket and held it in his hand, knowing it was his last option. Michael climbed onto the single table in the room and stood on top of it. Directly above his head he could see the smoke detector. He clicked the lighter on and held it up to the smoke detector, expecting it to come to life.  
“BEEP BEEP BEEP, please leave the building immediately,” it blared.  
The vault door opened slowly and Michael stepped out, already soaked from the sprinklers. He made sure to ditch the two duffels while still inside because he knew they would raise attention to him and get him caught. As he hurriedly walked down the bank’s front steps behind two bank tellers, he felt somebody watching him.  
Michael and Lincoln locked eyes. Michael was on the last step and Lincoln was sitting in a black SUV across the street with the window open. Lincoln was in in pure shock. Michael was the last person Lincoln had expected to see coming out of the bank. Michael only held the gaze for another second. He walked down the street to where his car was parked, got in and drove home.  
Lincoln came home a short time afterwards and confronted Michael. They argued until Michael stormed out of the room. After the argument, Lincoln thought about the sacrifice he made a few years ago. How he had taken a loan, put the money into Michael’s bank account, and told Michael that the money was his half of their mother’s life insurance money. This had allowed Michael to pay for law school. Would he have done is differently, he asked himself. No. Although he wished that things had ended up differently. His one real job as a delivery man was not enough to pay back his debt in time. His one chance of paying back his debt was this bank robbery. One of the only reasons he took the job was because he would be stealing from a corrupt politician named Theodore Bagwell. Bagwell was widely known as heartless and money-thirsty, but untouchable by the law. For Lincoln this would work out perfectly because he saw it as a morally just thing to do. Even though he would be breaking the law on many levels, he would be proud of his actions, not shameful. Unfortunately for Lincoln though, he hadn’t gotten the opportunity to go through with the job. Today had been his last chance. Now that the job had been called off, he had no idea what would happen to him. He feared for his life, but he also feared for Michael’s life. The people to whom he was indebted were not known for their forgiveness.  
While Lincoln is contemplating what to do, Michael walks into the room and sits down. “Look, I have the money,” Michael says.  
Lincoln looks up, “what?” He doesn’t understand.  
“It’s in an account that you can access.”  
Lincoln still cannot comprehend, “how” he asks?  
“At first I was planning on bringing the money with me in duffel bags but that fell through, so I instead put it in a safety deposit box I opened a few days earlier. I replaced the real money with printed bills. At first glance they look real, but they aren’t. Here’s the key to the account and the password is the same one you always use.” Michael hands him the key.  
“Michael…I don’t know what to say,” Lincoln says.  
“Next time, just have a little faith,” Michael grins and gets up. “And you better take me out to an expensive dinner tomorrow night,” says Michael as he leaves the room.  
A few weeks later, Michael and Lincoln are sitting on the beach in Mexico sipping on ice cold beer. They have just finished an intense session of surfing and are happy to relax. Once Lincoln had gotten the money from the bank and repaid his debt, he had decided to not only take Michael out to dinner but on a whole vacation. Michael was not opposed to the idea. The two brothers used to be very close, but over the past few years had drifted apart. This was their time to bond and they were going to take advantage of every minute of it. “Cheers, Linc.”  
“Cheers, buddy.” They clink glasses.


End file.
